The reduction of one of two teachers in the vocational agriculture education program at Staunton River High School has led several students, farmers and farming advocates in the county to ask the Bedford County School Board to reconsider that cut.

At last Thursday’s meeting, the board heard from several on the issue.

Shawn Marie Horrell has been named the 2011 high school Teacher of the Year for Bedford County Public Schools. She was honored during an assembly at Bedford Science and Technology Center Friday.

Horrell teaches at BSTC in the Early Childhood and Teachers for Tomorrow programs. She’s worked at the school since 2008, and has taught since 2000, beginning her career at Rustburg Middle School. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Liberty University in 2000.

Staunton River Middle School teacher Katherine West had planned to spend Friday in Newport News with her newly-born first grandchild.

Instead, her husband Frank, convinced her that they had to head back home because she was needed at school for SOL testing and he had some work to complete. Reluctantly, and only with the promise that they would go back to Newport News over the weekend, did she make the trip.

Each year for the past 22 years, the residents and friends of Smith Mountain Lake, our Community, have used the first Saturday of May as an annual “Take Pride in Smith Mountain Lake” cleanup day to make sure that our lake looks its very best for our Summer use and also for our visitors. It’s important for our businesses and also for our own enjoyment of the lake.

Next week, Republicans in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District will choose a nominee to face a Democratic congressman considered one of the “most vulnerable” incumbents in the country.

Numerous GOP candidates have emerged from various places in the district to win the nod against Tom Perriello, who beat the seemingly unbeatable Virgil Goode two years ago by less than one thousand votes.

A few years ago a visit by a delegation from the local American Legion post should have served warning on Dr. William McIntosh that a proposed bust of Joseph Stalin at the National D-Day Memorial would not be well received. He and the D-Day Memorial Foundation chose to proceed with the plan anyway. Jim Morrison’s well written column in last week’s Bedford Bulletin indicated why so many veterans are upset about that decision.

Today, the American people are facing one of the most challenging times in our nation’s history. Our economy remains sluggish, people fear losing their jobs and their homes, and many are worried about the future their children and grandchildren will inherit. They are deeply concerned about the outlook for our great country and wonder if their children will grow up in the same America they did. People are looking for solutions to the problems we face.